


Burnout

by Swump (Zelan)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Sick Keith (Voltron), Sickfic, Sneezing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-03
Updated: 2018-05-03
Packaged: 2019-05-01 15:30:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14523654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zelan/pseuds/Swump
Summary: Keith has to power through a mission despite knowing he's coming down with something.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gratefullurkinganon](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=gratefullurkinganon).



> This was written as a gen fic but you could call it Sheith if you wanted.
> 
> lmao i've never written snez before so hopefully this doesn't suck

Keith could tell as soon as he woke up that it was going to be a bad day. That’s just how it is when you wake up to a sneezing fit that lasts a full minute.

When it finally comes to an end, Keith slumps back in bed, exhausted. Everything hurts after that - his nose, his throat, quiznak, even his ribs hurt, which is… worrying, actually. Hopefully that’s just from pitching forward to sneeze a hundred times. He sniffs halfheartedly and gingerly steps out of bed; just because he’s coming down with something doesn’t excuse him from all the work he has to do today.

It takes Keith longer than he would have liked to get dressed. He stumbles around his room in a bit of a daze before remembering where he keeps his clothes. Pointedly ignoring the fact that the only time he ever gets like this is when he’s really sick, Keith tells himself that he’s not fully awake yet and strips off his pajamas.

He has to change his shirt, _again_ , when an impressively snotty sneeze catches him by surprise. Keith looks at the mess on his sleeve with disgust before sighing and finding another shirt.

By this time, Keith has been held up long enough that he’s the last person at the table for breakfast. Thankfully, no one says anything, although the sidelong glance that Shiro sends his way doesn’t escape Keith’s notice. He keeps his head down and tries to keep his sniffles to a minimum to assuage Shiro’s suspicions.

No one else seems to have much of an appetite for today’s food goo - Hunk tries his best, and usually does well, but sometimes space food is just plain gross. For once, Keith is glad about this, as now he’s not the only one to leave more than half of his plate untouched.

“Alright, everyone,” Shiro says, breaking the tired silence, “I know it’s early, but we need to get suited up and get moving. We have limited time to complete this mission.”

Right. The mission. It was definitely going to be a bad day.

The paladins break off to head back to their rooms and put their armor on. As he’s heading to Red’s hangar, Keith realizes with dread that his nose has started to drip. He pulls his helmet off to swipe irritably at his nose. _What a pain._

Replacing his helmet, Keith grabs onto his zipline and zooms down to meet Red. Her comforting rumble, half purr, half growl, coaxes a smile out of him despite the fact that he already feels completely run ragged.

“Hey, Red,” he murmurs. He feels her concern as soon as he sits in the pilot’s chair, but he pushes it aside, reminding her that they have work to do. Red, always ready for action, drops the matter without much prodding. They fly out into open space.

“Okay, team.” Shiro’s voice comes in over the comms. “We need to gather above the planet’s surface while Pidge searches for the best entry point through the atmosphere.”

“Commencing search,” Pidge says.

Absentmindedly, Keith licks at the snot dripping from his nose, grimacing a little at the taste. It can’t really be helped though, he reflects, since he needs to keep his helmet on so that he can hear what everyone’s saying.

“Do you guys think there’ll be mermaids on this planet? There’s water on this planet, right?”

Well, maybe not everyone.

Keith has little patience for Lance’s antics on the best of days. This runny nose, coupled with the headache forming at the back of his skull, are not making him any easier to deal with.

He feels another sneeze building, his breath hitching in anticipation. Keith makes the split-second decision to pull his helmet off, barely managing it before letting loose three sneezes in rapid succession. He takes a moment to gather himself, sniffling a few times, before pulling his helmet back on.

“KEITH!” Hunk’s yell startles him. “We’re going in, buddy! Come on!”

“Enter at the exact coordinates that I found!” Pidge cuts in.

Keith frantically scans the skies for the other lions, relieved to see Yellow’s tail disappearing into the planet’s thick atmosphere. He follows, glad for Red’s speed, and is swallowed up by the swirling dark gases surrounding the planet.

As they travel deeper and deeper into the planet’s atmosphere, the comms begin to buzz with static. Keith realizes that the atmosphere must be interfering with the signal. He’s thankful for this when his nose begins to itch and he sneezes again, not bothering with his helmet this time; he doesn’t have the energy at this point, and hopefully the sound will blend in with the static crackle.

This happens a few more times on the way to the planet’s surface. The fourth ( _fourth_ ) time leaves a nasty spray on the inside of his visor. Keith sighs and pulls his helmet off to clean it, putting Red on autopilot. He knows she’s smart enough to keep following after Hunk, and she can probably handle the landing, too, if she needs to. He finds some sort of cleaner and uses it to wipe down the inside of his visor, working as quickly as he can in case the signal comes back and the team tries to talk to him.

Keith has just finished and taken control of Red again when he realizes his mistake. The sharp scent of the cleaner stings his nose, heightening the urge to sneeze even more. Keith bites his lip to hold it back. He should’ve just wiped the snot away - it would have been hard to see, sure, but now it was going to be even harder to hide his sneezing.

Shiro’s voice finally breaks through the static. “...yone hear me? We’re almost at the surface, we need to prepare for landing.”

“Roger that!” Lance replies.

“Come again?” Hunk asks. “I only heard Lance.”

“We’re coming in for landing,” Pidge says. “Get ready.”

“Keith?” Shiro asks. “Did you get that?”

“I got it,” he says, managing to force down the urge to sneeze despite his nose burning terribly. The surface comes into view before them and, one by one, the lions land, paws sinking slightly into the peaty ground.

“We’re going to have to go on foot from here,” Shiro tells them. “These trees are too thick for the lions to get through.”

“Hey guys, I’m getting a reading that says the atmosphere here is like, mildly toxic,” Hunk cuts in. “We’re gonna have to keep our helmets on.”

Quiznak. This day had gone from bad to hellish.

Keith pulls off his helmet for the last time and takes in a deep breath, knowing that this will be his last opportunity for a while. It’s frustrating, then, when the sneeze refuses to come, though he can feel it, as though it’s just at the edge of his nose.

He leans down to get a lungful of the scented air in his helmet. This does the trick, and Keith lets out a violent sneeze that he would swear echoes for at least five seconds afterward. He halfheartedly wipes away the snot coating his upper lip and steels himself before putting his helmet back on.

Keith stands to join the other paladins outside, but is surprised when the motion makes him lightheaded; he has to grab the back of the seat to keep his balance. An uncomfortable chill makes its way down his spine at the same time that his face flushes, suddenly feeling unbearably warm. _Quiznak._ A fever on top of everything else is the last thing he wants.

He waits a moment longer until he feels in control of his limbs before letting go and leaving Red.

“What took you so long?” Lance prods when he finally gets there.

“Sorry,” Keith mutters, not offering any other explanation.

He can feel Shiro looking at him again, but after a long pause the black paladin chooses not to comment. Instead, Shiro launches straight into the mission brief.

“Okay, team, we need to do this as quickly as possible,” he begins. “The Galra have introduced a mutant strain of one of the native plants that has started attacking the planet’s inhabitants. They’re currently hiding belowground. There are three different areas infected with the mutated strains. Our job is to locate them and do a controlled burn of the area around them to stop the strain from spreading. Everyone got that?”

As one, the team nods.

“Good,” Shiro says with an approving smile. “We’ll split up to cover more ground, but call if you need backup, okay? Good luck, everyone.”


	2. Chapter 2

Keith must have been wandering for at least two vargas. He had realized early on that sniffing accomplished almost nothing, and was forced to resort to licking away the snot leaking from his nose, leaving his lips chapped and raw.

All Keith wants is to go back to the castle. The only thing standing in his way is this last quiznaking mutant plant.

Lance had found the first one almost immediately, burning the area with Hunk’s help, and Shiro had managed to take down the second one on his own. But the final elusive plant had yet to be found. The whole team, not just Keith, was dragging.

“Guys!” Pidge’s excited voice cuts through the weighty silence, making Keith wince. “I think I found- Ah!” A heavy _thwack_ followed her yelp.

“Pidge! What’s going on?” Shiro yells. The others chime in, calling for an answer that would not come.

“Guys,” Keith tries, voice strained from disease and disuse. The others didn’t hear. “GUYS,” he bellows with as much force as he can. “I’m nearby, I’ll go see what’s wrong!”

“Hurry!” Shiro barks. Keith didn’t need telling; he was already locked onto Pidge’s location, racing towards the scene.

Keith crests a hill and stops, taking in the sight. Pidge’s helmet has been knocked off; she’s lying prone in front of what Keith knows must be the mutant plant they’ve been sent here to exterminate. Luckily, her lack of movement meant that the plant was no longer targeting her. Unluckily, she had been breathing toxic air for who knows how long.

Keith is shaking with exhaustion, but he takes a breath to steady himself and grabs his bayard, letting it transform into a broadsword. He licks his sore lips and then lunges, quick and deadly, separating the plant’s head from its stem before it even has time to register him. There’s an unsettlingly animalistic squeal and the vines writhe a few times before the entire thing goes still.

Keith stoops to pick up Pidge’s helmet and walks over to where she lies, kneeling down next to her. His heart seems to stop for a moment when he realizes he can’t tell if she’s breathing. He takes a deep breath and holds it, pulling off his helmet to lean his head down next to hers.

He closes his eyes in silent relief at the sound of her faint inhale and exhale. Still holding his breath, he carefully slides her helmet into place over her head. Before he can do the same with his own, his breath hitches and he barely has time to think _quiznak_ (for the umpteenth time that day) before a flurry of sneezes takes hold of him.

Keith is left lightheaded, not only from the likely fever, but from the air surrounding him. With sluggish movements he puts his helmet on. “I’ve got her,” he reports, voice rough. “I’ll meet you guys back at where we left the lions.”

“Good work, Keith,” Shiro says, noticeably relieved. Keith hoists Pidge, still unconscious, over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry and stands up on shaky legs.

He almost forgets to do the burn until he spots Pidge’s equipment lying nearby. Miraculously, she’s already done all of the work for him - a ditch has been dug to corral the fire within the target area, and everything has been thoroughly doused with fuel. Keith manages to get both of them and their equipment across the ditch (how he hadn’t noticed it before, he’s not sure) and flicks the lighter, letting a single spark streak to the ground.

He drags himself up to the top of the hill and just watches the fire for a bit as it spreads. He knows that he needs to get back - he and Pidge both need medical attention - but the dancing flames are absolutely mesmerizing. Something about the atmosphere here has colored them differently than fire on Earth. These flames are a delicate shade of lavender, burning dark purple at the center; their bluish tips reach hungrily towards the sky. Keith knows that the flames are no less dangerous for their beauty, but the temptation to touch them is strong, Still, he resists it.

The moment of peace is broken by another sneeze, weak and pathetic-sounding in a reflection of Keith’s physical state. Keith sighs, licks his lips, and starts off towards the lions.

The stumble through the planet’s wilderness is taxing, and carrying Pidge is no help to him. Keith rapidly finds himself leaning against trees for support, trailing his fingers from one to the next to ensure he keeps his balance. He sneezes frequently, but feebly, barely able to muster the strength for a deep breath. At some point he gives up licking and just lets his nose run.

The only thing Keith is able to focus on is the cluster of lights on his visual display signalling the location of the lions. Slowly, laboriously, Keith makes his way there. He hardly hears the others’ cries of relief when he staggers into the clearing. Someone tries to take Pidge from him and he resists until he realizes that it’s Pidge herself, that she’s trying to get down, that she’s awake and okay and ready to pilot her lion. Keith lowers her carefully to the ground and makes sure she’s steady before she heads into Green. The rest of them follow suit; the clap to the shoulder that Hunk gives Keith as he passes almost bowls him over. He manages to stay upright until he gets to Red, collapsing into the pilot’s seat.

Keith flies back to the castle in a fevered daze, Red doing most of the work for him. He’s wheezing harshly, his breath hitching a couple times in what’s barely forceful enough to be called a sneeze. He barely notices the jolt from landing and just sits for a minute. It’s not until Red growls at him to _get out_ that he jerks back to reality, heaving himself up and walking down the ramp.

He trips at the bottom and nearly falls face-first, but someone catches him by the shoulders. Keith sags into whoever it is, lacking the energy to hold himself up now that someone else is doing it for him. A calloused, gentle hand cups his face, and Keith raises his head a fraction of an inch to meet Shiro’s eyes.

Shiro strokes his thumb across Keith’s heated cheek. He looks a little angry, Keith thinks, but more concerned than anything else. “Bed,” he orders, and Keith only nods. Shiro rearranges the two of them so that Keith’s arm is draped across his shoulders, and they painstakingly make their way to Keith’s room.

\-----

“Hey.” Pidge leans against the doorframe of Keith’s room. He’s already sitting up in bed, reading some book from the space mall, but he sits up straighter when he sees her.

“Hey,” he rasps.

Pidge comes over to sit on the bed next to him. “So I heard you risked your life saving mine back there.”

Keith had ending up having to go on oxygen for a while after the mission. Pidge’s body had been able to work through the toxins on its own, but Keith’s already ailing body had struggled to do the same. Keith hated the oppressive feeling he got when he wore oxygen masks, but he had been too drained to protest, so he had allowed Shiro to fit the mask over his face. It had helped to have Shiro sitting beside him, holding Keith’s hand between his metal one and his flesh one, and Keith had eventually faded into sleep.

He didn’t care to go over all the details again, though, so he only shrugs one shoulder. “That’s what we do for each other,” he says simply.

Pidge smiles and reaches out to squeeze his shoulder. “Still,” she says, “I’m glad you were there to bail me out. Are you feeling better? Do you need anything?”

Keith tentatively returns the smile, tipping his head to indicate his book. “The next part of the series would be great.”


End file.
